


that I shall serve with heart loving

by beachbitch



Category: The Last Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Prostitution, Reunion Sex, Season/Series 03, show canon i have not read the books nor do i plan to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:08:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26329153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beachbitch/pseuds/beachbitch
Summary: All the men that came before him had used her but she hadn’t been theirs, she hadn’t given herself to them willingly. Sihtric’s claim of her was stronger than petty jealousy over a past neither of them could change.
Relationships: Ealhswith/Sihtric (The Last Kingdom)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	that I shall serve with heart loving

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raincityruckus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raincityruckus/gifts).



> Dedicated to my bestest pal Kayla. I meant this to be purely self indulgent porn but it didn't quite turn out that way. Maybe I'll write a follow up from Sihtric's POV and then we'll really get down to business.

The din of hearty celebration carried from the main hall into her little room in the back, flirty giggles and lewd ruckus mixing with the singing of bards and in a familiar drunken harmony. There was to be a royal wedding, lust was in the air and the good men of Winchester wasted no excuse to seek the welcoming embrace of a whore. When the king died, and that would be soon if the rumors were to be believed, they would come to their establishment as well, to mourn the passing of the great king while they drowned their sorrow in ale and tits.

The hand groping her breast had callouses in all the wrong places. The teeth tugging at her nipple were unclean and his breath carried the fermented smell of ale. The body was lean but his gut was swollen from many years of excessive drinking. He was a soldier of some sort, low in the ranks but with enough coin to afford her. As he tugged her nipple between his teeth and slid a hand between her legs, she moaned and arched beneath him, head precisely turned away to stare blankly at the back wall. He wasn’t looking at her face at the moment, so she could get away with that. If he were, her eyes would go cloudy and her brow would knit with a practiced expression of rapture, lips parted as she expertly faked a sensual shortness of breath. Her passion was performative but she’d been trained well and the man on top of her would never tell otherwise. None of her patrons could. She’d always had a special talent for detaching herself from the act of her profession, keeping engaged only the necessary parts that would ensure the men left her bed satiated and all to happy to pay her hard earned coin. Only one man had ever seen through her. She ran her hands over the slim shoulders of the man on top of her, her first of the night, and tilted her hips to accept his fingers inside her as she reminded herself not to think of her husband.

It wasn’t coin Ealhswith had been in dire need of, but protection. Bishop Erkenwald had siezed Coccham in the name of God and King Alfred and promptly declared a pagan whore – a _converted_ pagan whore – was not welcome. The Heavenly Father had made it his sacred duty to evict the likes of her and shine His light back on a land long ruled by the scourge of the pagan Uhtred and so would the good bishop do his duty swiftly and joyfully. But not before offering to personally show her the way back to God’s grace, in private and on her knees.

She’d fetched a pretty price back in her day, when she was tight and compact and her cock sucking skills had been exalted by her patrons loudly and often. But eternal salvation in exchange for her services? That was certainly new, and mildly flattering. She still said no, of course. If she had to whore to survive she would do it on her terms and not for a man who had the king’s ear and could potentially make life for her and Sihtric very difficult. Not that her current situation was anything other than dire.

Abbess Hilde had tried to offer her sanctuary but she was bound by the laws of the Church to do as he commanded and Erkenwald very emphatically wanted Ealhswith – an unrepentant, converted, pagan whore – gone from Coccham. And so she packed up her boy and the silver Sihtric’s good fortune had brought him, and rode to Winchester.

Sihtric had friends there and she was sure they would carry news of her relocation far quickly than she ever could. She didn’t expect them to offer help, and they didn’t, and so to the brothel she turned. The owner, Ealdwine, had always been kind to her, or if not kind then he’d treated her and the rest of the girls with the kind of care reserved for valuable merchandise. She could probably get a room in a tavern but she didn’t know how long Sihtric would be gone. His lord was considered a traitor now which meant their situation in Wessex was tenuous. If the silver she took from Coccham was their only fortune she could not in good conscience spend it when they would certainly need it to rebuild their life elsewhere if he came back for her and their son. When he came back.

Aside from steady income, the brothel offered safety. Ealdwine was a firm believer that happy whores were profitable whores and so he had always taken care of them and their children. She made it clear to him she expected Sihtric to come for her and offered an extra percentage of her earnings on top of the usual fee to compensate him for the trouble. He’d looked like he was humoring her – Sihtric took her away from the life once before but twice? What self respecting man would take back a wife that had whored in his absence? - but he was above all a man of business and by the time night fell she was back to earning on her back.

She pointedly avoided thinking how long it’d been since that conversation took place. She pushed the worries away as well. Some customers liked to fuck girls while they cried but that was only through special request and more expensive than what the man on top of her had agreed to pay. If she felt like crying she’d just wait until later that night when she could quiet her sobs into her pillow in peace while her young son slept soundly beside her.

The man on top of her groaned and shuddered as he found her sex ready through no effort of his own. He fumbled with his leathers as he went about freeing his cock and Ealhswith mentally tallied how long it’d been since he’d approached her and she’d guided him to this room. It hadn’t been long at all and she was willing to bet he would be done by the time the song playing in the main room ended. She was fine with that. The more time she had to spend with each patron individually the harder it was to keep herself disengaged. They might see the cracks under her carefully practiced passion and that was not good for business.

The door exploded open and she jerked under the man. His reaction was more dramatic, limbs flailing as he scrambled to his feet and went for his sword. Ealhswith pushed herself up on her elbows and stared at the tall figure filling the threshold, backlit by the multitude of candles spread over the main hall. His broad shoulders were tense under his cloak, his legs spread in a defensive stance she knew would hold with ease if her patron decided to charge for him. One hand curled over the head of the axe hanging from his belt at his side, and she knew from experience how quickly the weapon could slip free from the holster and into his hand, and the kind of deadly damage it could inflict in close quarters such as her little room. Much more so than the sword her patron lunged for with all the grace and stealth of a boar.

His other hand gripped a bouquet of flowers. Small, delicate white blooms clinging to thin silvery branches, the stems wrapped in a pale ribbon. He did not let go of the bouquet as he lunged for her patron and no harm befell the delicate flowers as he neutralized the man one handed. She did not arrange her skirts to cover herself or tugged her low neckline up in a show of modesty. A cool draft came in from the open doorway and her exposed nipples perked up.

She stared at the flowers rather than her husband’s face as dread began building steadily in her gut.

She knew Sihtric would come back. She’d never ever doubted it. Except she did every time Young Sihtric asked where his father was and why they had to leave their home and how come she had to leave him with the other children every night. When she took a new patron into her bed or, worse yet, when they recognized her from before and knew who she belonged to. When the other girls shared pitying looks they thought she missed when she told her son his father would come for them soon.

The relief to find him whole was staggering and short lived, for now she had to face the consequences of coming back to the brothel. She had tried to wall off the fear that her decision would break them, focused only on what was in front of her since Erkenwald irreparably disrupted her world months ago, and how to keep herself and their son safe until Sihtric came back. Now he was back and like a dam breaking, fear gnawed at her in rolling waves. He’d never held her past against her, he’d accepted the circumstances that had made her lot in life when they met. He’d still fallen in love with her and married her because he wanted to share his life with her. And she’d wanted that too, so badly every time he came to her and told her Uhtred still hadn’t given his permission for them to marry she’d died a little bit.

But this was not the past. He had found his wife in bed with another man.

The flowers were encouraging. The violence with which he disarmed and threw out the man he found with his fingers inside her was less so.

Despite her worry and fear heat licked at her core, Sihtric’s strength and prowess never failed to ignite her need for him, and that was without taking into account the long months of separation. Her body missed him too. He was her love, the only man she had ever willingly shared herself with. The door shut with a slam and silence filled the room. Ealhswith risked a glance and took in his face, her heart jumping in her throat at the dark anger she saw there. “I had to,” she said. In all the months she’d anticipated their reunion she hadn’t actually given any thought as to how she might explain what she’d done. She had done what she could with the options she’d had available to her and she stood by her choices. Their son was safe and the silver was intact and that was an outcome she was proud of. But the thought of actually talking to Sihtric about it had triggered a panic so sharp she had pushed it away all these months. The reality of the conversation they needed to have had the same effect on her but there was no pushing it away. “Coccham wasn’t safe.”

His response was nothing more than a hum to acknowledge he’d heard her. His face was a blank mask, his mismatched eyes thunderous in the dim light. Her fingers dug into the sheets beneath her as she followed with her eyes as he took measured steps towards her. Sihtric’s gaze swept over her exposed breasts and the skirts of her revealing gown bunched around her hips, her legs slightly parted. Perhaps she should’ve covered herself. Shyness was not something she was used to feeling with him, she didn’t have anything to hide from her husband. She was starting to fear she had really made a terrible mistake and it was suddenly paramount to protect her tattered dignity.

She moved to sit up and cover herself, face turned away from him as she attempted to build a wall around her heart though she feared it was much too late. The touch of his long finger on the underside of her chin startled her. He tilted her face up and his eyes bored into hers. There was anger there, yes, and a good deal of it. But there was a light in them she recognized. It was the same genuine joy she had seen every time he returned home to her from his journeys with Lord Uhtred. Hope bloomed inside her.

The flowers found a home in the small table by the bed, their fragrance perfuming the air between them as Sihtric tugged off his cloak and let it fall at his feet, followed by his sheathed weapons. Her fingers pulled the laces of her gown free and parted it, bearing her nakedness to him completely. Her breasts were not firm like they had been when they met but they were still lush, flattened gently to the sides as she lay down on her back once more as Sihtric loomed over her. The mattress sank under his weight as he pressed a knee beside her hip and he leaned forward, his large palms sweeping over breasts, cupping them as if he were testing their weight briefly. He soothed the ache of the months of distance between them sliding his thumb between the valley of her breasts and down her stomach.

The leather of his cuirass squeaked softly when he leaned forward and pressed his lips right over the bottom of her breastbone. The heat in his eyes knocked the breath out of her and she raised a trembling hand to thread her fingers through his hair, combing it back from where it curled over his forehead. He needed a trim. The sides of his head around his ears were shaved neatly but the top had likely not been cut since she last saw him, it was so long it almost fell over his eyes.

He kissed down her belly without breaking eye contact, the rough pads of his fingers blindly following the path of the thin, silvery lines that ran up towards her belly button.

“He’s fine. He misses you,” she answered the silent question and felt part of the tension he carried melt away.

Sihtric pulled back and she shivered, missing his warmth. He made quick work of removing the layers of his armor and clothes and Ealhswith could scarcely breathe as his strong frame was revealed. His shoulders were as broad as she remembered, the powerful muscles of his arms moved under his golden skin as he undressed. A dusting of hair trailed down his defined chest to the thick patch of dark curls just hinted over the waistband of his leathers. There were a handful of new small scars she could see, nothing that appeared to have been very serious, and even if it had been he was here with her, safe and sound.

She itched to touch him so she sat up, letting her gown fall completely off her frame. She spread her palms over the warm skin of his chest, fingers tripping over old scars and new as she reacquainted herself with him. She felt his muscles jerk under her touch, his breath stutter when she brushed a kiss over the trail of hair that ran down his middle. She curled her fingers on the waistband of his leathers and without stopping to unlace them she tugged them down only enough to reveal the nest of thick curls at the root of his manhood. She shivered as she buried her nose there, breathing in the manly scent of him.

His cock was hard and pushing against the front of his leathers. Just as her hands moved to work on the laces his hands curled around her shoulders and he pulled her back from him. Ealhswith stared up at him. “No,” he said, his voice clipped and low.

His rejection hit her as if he’d slapped her across the face. Sihtric guided her back to the bed, mindless of the anger that began to simmer within her. He lowered his weight over her, nestled between her legs and pining her in place as ducked his head so his lips closed over one tightly peaked nipple. A breathless moan caught in the back of her throat even as she felt the anger mix with the confusion and fear that had been building since he burst into her room. Whatever else he was clearly working through, her husband wanted her. That should be enough for now. The silent treatment was not ideal but Sihtric had always been a man of few words. She tried not to take it personally. She really did.

She failed.

“ _No?_ ” she bit out. Her nails dug into his broad shoulders, hard enough she felt the skin break. “All you have to say is _‘no’_?”

He glanced at her, eyes hard and jaw set. She glared at him, nails tearing into his skin. His cock jerked against her core through his leathers and the corner of his mouth twitched. In the span of a breath he had both her arms over her head, wrists held in place with one of his big hands while the other slipped between their bodies to cup her sex.

Her slick bathed his palm in a mater of seconds. She breathed loudly through her nose, refusing to voice the moans that clawed at her throat as he rubbed lightly over her cunt. “You disappear for months, I was ran out of our home and had to come here and that is all you’re going to say to me? _No?_ ”

Sihtric slipped a finger inside her. “No.”

She screamed at him even as her core pulsed, recognizing the touch of her lover and craving more. Her scream trailed off as his hand squeezed her wrists and his lips caught her nipple and sucked it in deeply. There was nothing fake about her passion now, much as she wanted to bite his head off her need coiled tight in her core and fresh slick slipped from her cunt. His finger slid in smoothly and a second finger joined it in the next breath, thumb circling over the bundle of nerves at the top of her sex as she moaned and twisted underneath him. Sihtric pulled away from her nipple and stared down at her, his unmatched eyes lit with hunger as his fingers curled inside her at just the right spot.

He hadn’t even said hello to her, or kissed her. Her fear and anger combined into an ugly living thing inside her. Worries aside, Sihtric was the one person she had thought would not judge her. His love had always stronger than that. “I am going to kill you,” she promised him, thrashing underneath him, a dark thrill adding an edge to her spiraling need despite her very best efforts to detach herself from what he made her feel.

He trapped her nipple with his teeth again, biting hard enough to make her cry out and feel a rush of warmth pooling low in core. He released her nipple, blood rushing to the tight peak like liquid heat as his fingers curled inside her, making her lightheaded with need. He smirked at her. “Later, love.”

She blinked at him, slowing her thoughts to really process the infuriatingly tender undertone to his intensity. Was he angry at her or not? He needed to make up his mind because she refused to play into this back and forth. Hope flickered to life in her gut and she cautiously let it take root while she bared her teeth at him. If he was playing with her she couldn’t let him see how much he affected her. “I will kill you after we finish this transaction then. Do be quick, I have other customers waiting.”

His lips formed a grim line, all traces of playfulness gone leaving behind his thundering anger. “No you don’t. I already informed Ealdwine that I’m taking my wife and son home.”

Ealhswith felt tension drain out of her though she carefully masked her relief. Just because he wanted her back didn’t mean he wasn’t angry at her for coming back to the brothel. And if that was the case and a fight was what he wanted she would give that to him. After everything she had had to endure these past few months she had more than earned that right. She narrowed her eyes. “I did what I had to do,” she told him, voice laced with steel, though the effect was ruined by a particularly well aimed stroke of his fingers made stars burst before her vision and a breathy moan escape past her lips.

Sihtric growled, fingers curling deep inside her and pressing hard along the front wall of her cunt as his thumb slid back and forth over her pleasure spot. He knew her body so well, better than she did herself. With her patrons she’d always been able to give them just enough and kept the rest of her safe behind her walls. But from the start Sihtric had been different. He’d demanded all of her and taken it. She’d only cried twice after servicing a patron; the first time she was used, uncomfortable with the pain of her lost virtue; and after Sihtric visited her for the very first time all those years ago, because he’d torn down her defenses, bared her soul and gave her the gift of unbelievable pleasure, and when he was gone she hadn’t known how to put herself back together. He’d come back to her after that, time and time again, and each time she’d thanked a god she wasn’t sure she still believed in for giving her one more chance to share her bed with him. Because as undone as he’d left her she was never more alive than in those moments.

The same held true now. As uncertain as things between them felt at that moment, he wanted her and she wanted him and the world fell away for her under his touch.

Ealhswith shuddered, close to her peak. She bent one knee, the sole of her feet planted on the mattress and used the leverage to rock her hips against the thrusts of Sihtric’s fingers. Tight tension crept through her. His hand had loosened around her wrists at some point so she pulled free and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. His lips moved up from her breasts, along the side of her neck and jaw. He hadn’t kissed her properly yet, she remembered herself with no small amount of annoyance. She licked her lips as he hovered over her mouth, his warm breath fanning over her, his eyes pinning her in place. He angled to close the distance between their lips and her heartbeat caught in her throat as a rush of anticipation surged within her, but he drew back at the last possible second, bumping his nose with hers instead. She growled with frustration and pulled hard at his hair at the back of his head in retaliation. She could still fee the vibrations of his low chuckle when his lips found hers a second later.

She sighed with her whole body. The kiss started out softly, Sihtric traced his tongue over her lips, parting them gently, almost worshiping. She tried to cling to her righteous anger but it melted away with every pass of his tongue. When she opened or him and as he moved in, tasting her deeply she let herself drift away in the wave of sensations he so skillfully ignited in her. Her core pulsed for him, the wet sounds of his fingers moving inside her were loud in the small room and she felt her blood heating, reaching towards a release she had only ever experienced with him. The kiss changed then and he took her mouth with the intensity of a man who had longed for his wife for months. Tears prickled at her eyes and the tension coiled at her core finally snapped as she poured all of her love and longing for him into returning the kiss. Like a dam breaking, pleasure inundated every inch of her like liquid heat. She arched her back and rocked her hips against his hand, seeking more friction. A third thick finger joined the others, stretching her with an edge of pain that only added to the bliss she experienced.

His strokes slowed as she came down the heights of her climax. He ended the kiss and pulled back, his slick and curling around the flare of her hip. Her breathing was shallow and her body felt heavy and satiated, even opening her eyes to look at him demanded more strength than she had in store at the moment. “It’s my fault you’re here,” Sihtric said, voice low and dangerous. The anger she’d seen lurking in his eyes flashed and she suddenly realized who it’s true target was. “I made a promise to you when we married that you’d never have to come back here. I promised to take care of you. I failed you.”

His words washed over her like a warm balm and her anger drifted away. She found no pleasure in his anguish but a not small part of her had feared there would be no going back for either of them. He’d never had a problem with her past. All the men that came before him had used her but she hadn’t been theirs, she hadn’t given herself to them willingly. Sihtric’s claim of her was stronger than petty jealousy over a past neither of them could change. He was who she belonged with, she was made for him and he for her and fate had brought them together, it didn’t matter how.

But that had been before. She was his wife now, the mother his son, and she’d whored while he was away. Her reasons had made perfect sense to her and she stood by them. She’d done the best she could. She knew she would be judged by his friends though they never said anything in front of her she knew they teased Sihtric about her, they always had and that was unlikely to stop anytime soon. She only ever needed one person to understand and that was her husband. Believing he didn’t had been a greater torture than the months she’d spent in the brothel.

Her hand trembled as she brushed the pads of her fingers over the intricate design inked on the skin around his ear and down his neck. “I don’t blame you. We both did the best we could.”

He snorted a mirthless chuckle and dropped his head, burying his face against the side of her neck. “I love you.”

She grinned, brushed her lips over the shell of his ear and bit him sharply enough that he jerked over her and huffed a surprised, genuine laugh. Better. “I love you, too. And thank you for the flowers,” she smiled, wrapping her legs around his waist and rocking her hips against his, his hard cock perfectly slotted between her folds though his leathers. “Shall I take care of that before we go?”

He pulled back, propping himself up on his elbow as he stared down at her. His eyes were warm now and she was glad to see that the anger was nothing but a shadow now. “It can wait. I just want to take you home.”

She nodded and pulled him down for a kiss. She didn’t ask where home was now, she didn’t need to. Any place they landed on was home as long as they were together.


End file.
